14 January 2009

Sky hooks and David Bailey

I managed to get out to the 'shop last night and make the other half of the joints for the drawer...so far, everything's gone according to plan. It went together quite well and there were'nt too many mishaps in cutting the pins, so tonight I plan to fit the drawer to the carcase, which is always interesting. For several days, I'd been puzzling over how to make the groove for the drawer bottom, especialy in the front...just how do you put a thin 3mm groove in a concave surface, a router is no good, nor is a plough plane? Fortunatly, I have the ideal little tool for the job...Pete's scratch stock. I ground up a bit of HSS cutter to the right profile and it went through the oak like a knife through the proverbial, really excellent.On a different tack altogether, I've been trying to improve the quality of my pics and not being a photogrophizer, it's a bit of a 'mare at the moment, but I reckon I'm getting there slowly. I now shoot on 'manual' and have been advised by Michael Huntley that f16 or better is a desirable aperture setting and as the camera is used on a tripod with a 10s delayed release, the shutter speed can come down to compensate...he sometimes goes down to 1/10th second, so I'll have to have a little play around. What's made a dramatic improvement is the halogen site lights that I bought recently. They throw out a lot of illumination (I bought four) and just need the 'white balance' setting on the camera altered to compensate for the type of bulb...all very confusing! The thing I really need to get hold of next is a long roll (2.72x15m) of photographic background paper. The idea with this is that it's hung from the 'shop roof and then rolled down onto the floor or working surface, the object being photographed is then placed inside so that there appears to be no transition 'twixt the vertical and horizontal...clever eh? I've already spoken to Michael and he'll get back to me with the sort of stuff that's best, I think he recommended a pale grey colour, so I'll have to wait and see.